Monday, 17 June 2013

Day 33: The Sensorites - Hidden Danger

The start of the episode sees the regulars trying to prevent Susan from going with the Sensorites. There is a nice moment of the Doctor, Susan and Barbara are teaming against Susan. We get the first bit of proper friction between the Doctor and Susan. It’s the first time that Susan has defied her grandfather and it causes the Doctor to be angry in a way that we haven’t really seen before. Ian thinks that Susan has been hypnotised by the Sensorites but Barbara tells him that she’s just growing up. Considering that she’s an alien and they haven’t really talked about alien things how would Barbara know she’s growing up.


The Doctor has another reason why he doesn’t like the Sensorites and that’s because he feels they are turning his granddaughter against him. It doesn’t really last long but it seems to be the reason why everybody goes to the sense-sphere. There is a plot contrivance to explain Jacqueline Hill’s holiday and that is she is staying up with Maitland whilst everyone else goes to the sense-sphere.

We get to learn about why the Sensorites aren’t quite trusting of humans. Due to a previous human encounter the Sensorites on their planet are dying. It makes the reason why the Sensorites do what they do more understanding and you can sympathise with them. We finally get to see something other than the spaceship and we get to encounter more Sensorites. A downside the characters show themselves in this story as we get to see their feet. They look like ducks feet.

The sets for the Sensorites is quite good. It’s a lot brighter than the spaceship and so it is a nice warming place to visit. The sets are done so that it feels like a big place and not just a couple of sets put next to each other. There is a sense of scale and its good to get out of the confines of the spaceship.

They all look the same as the only difference is the black sash that some of them wear. Otherwise there is no way of telling them apart which is going to be difficult but there is a minor difference because some are a bit portly and some are slimmer.

It’s good that the Sensorites are just as distrusting to people that they don’t know just like humans can be. This fear is something that runs through the episode quite blatantly and it’s not something that’s been explored like this before. John has the ability to tell who is evil and who isn’t and despite not really being in the episode that much his involvement is quite good and he’s been the most consistent thing in the story.

No sooner have the humans arrived than someone is trying to kill them. The city administrator is going all the way to try and kill the humans. Just when it looks like that the regulars are going to kill them they are stopped by the First Elder. However it’s just seems to delay the inevitable as Ian becomes ill. After moments of coughing he just stands up and collapses to the floor and we are told he is dying.

It’s a really good cliffhanger as it puts Ian in genuine danger. Unlike in the Aztecs when he was in the tunnel filled with water I think if I were watching this for the first time then I would wonder whether Ian was going to make it. I thought that the episode was a transitional one as we move from the spaceship to the Sensorites home world and its good that there seems like a purpose to it but also a genuine meance. Best episode of the stry.

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